UCD ER VISIT

Sorry it has been so long since I posted, but I had a little set back over the weekend as many of you know. Apparently when you start taking the Revlimid and the cancer cells start dying sometimes the tumors in the lymph system will become inflamed, swollen and sore. By last Friday afternoon I started having a lot of pain particularly under my right shoulder blade. And a lymph node along my right jaw line swelled up causing more pain. I called the clinical trial nurse and she said to stay comfortable, use a heating pad, rest, etc. Getting a blood clot is one of the worries but my doctor felt I was low risk for that and the nurse said it could also be indigestion causing the pain under my shoulder blade. By Saturday night I was in extreme pain and had taken 800 mg Motrin with zero relief. As I sat on my sofa I realized I was in tears which is not like me so I called my sister Sis to see if she thought I should have UCD get in touch with the on-call oncologist. She thought I should and came right over to wait with me for the call back. The doctor called back and at this point she thought the symptoms should be taken seriously and advised me to head to the ER to make sure I didn't have a blood clot. They did an EKG, CT Scan and chest x-rays. Then the ER doctor and nurse explained I needed to get my pain under control and then I could go home. My tests were all good except the radiologist thought they detected some pneumonia in my lungs. The nurse wanted to give me Morphin. I explained that I had that for one of my procedures 9 years ago it didn't really do anything other than make me nauseated and asked if they had some other drug for pain relief. She insisted they didn't and I finally gave in and let her give me the Morphin which she did through my IV. After some period of time when she came back to check my pain level (which was unchanged of course since like I had said for some reason Morphin doesn't work for me) the nurse decided what I really needed was just MORE Morphin. That is when the fun began. She basically OD'd me on Morphin. My blood pressure dropped to 60 something over 30 something at which point the nurse of course started to panic. So rather than being sent home in the wee hours on Sunday I spent the rest of the day in the ER with them flushing sodium chloride bag after bag through my IV trying to get my blood pressure to rise. They also started bags of antibiotics for the suspected pneumonia. Then since I was in bed so long they started giving me Heparin shots every 8 hours (never knew a shot could hurt so bad). I had to be admitted and finally got into a room and a comfortable bed at 8:30 p.m. Sunday night. Monday they tried another narcotic in pill form for pain relief and again my blood pressure started dropping but not as bad. The oncologists came in Monday and said they really wanted to just get me out of the hospital before I got any sicker. They said if I had any more problems I could just call and they would direct re-admit me so I wouldn't have to go to the ER again. So I finally got to go home Monday evening. What a way to spend the weekend! They stopped my Revlimid for a few days and started me on a 5 day dose of prednisone to try and calm the swollen and inflamed tumors. My family cancelled the planned Father's Day get together and I missed my son Scott's first Father's Day but boy was it good to get out of the hospital alive! My sister took me to see the babies Tuesday morning. I couldn't believe how much I missed them and when I held Brody in the rocking chair he just looked at me like, "Grandma where have you been!" It just made me cry and it felt so good just to see and hold the babies. The doctors just do not have any medicine to match that. I struggled all week with symptoms but finally started feeling better Thursday. I gained 12 pounds in 24 hours at the hospital but lost 5 of it by Thursday morning and 5 more pounds by Friday morning. I felt like a waddling full-term pregnant woman all week. Of course my family and friends have been right there with me and every single day I get cards to lift my spirits and encourage me, flowers, gift certificates for food so I don't have to cook, friends bringing me dinner and hanging out, groceries, Sis and my Mom driving me where I need to go, my sister Kim came and cleaned for me, lots of phone calls checking on me, even a card with a spa certificate! I am so blessed with such wonderful people in my life and it really touches my heart and gives me strength to pull from and continue this battle. My oncologist called yesterday and he thinks the worst is over. I pray he is right. They started me back on the Revlimid Wednesday evening at a lower dose. I did my blood work yesterday and am getting ready for my weekly Rituxin infusions which start Monday for 4 cycles. So I am just resting up as much as I can and trying to get some strength back. My pain has subsided for the most part although I still have a nice big swollen lymph node tumor right along my right jaw line. Thank you everyone for everything and for all of the prayers. The power of prayer keeps getting me through this battle. God is awesome.